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BOTH slept through the night…break out the bubbly!

Posted on September 9, 2008 by innest

                                                    http://www.randomclipart.com/clipart/cartoon-champagne-bottle-1003.html

The whole night started out horrendously – decided to let Angus cry for 10 minutes when we put him down  – it was bad, bad bad!  I can’t do that again.  After 10 minutes he was sobbing and heaving and couldn’t get his breath.  Even when I picked him up.  Finally brought him to my bed and lay with him until he went to sleep.  So forget the cry it out method for me, I’m sure if I left him long enough he would eventually sob himself to sleep but by that time I’d be sobbing myself to sleep too.  Put Kieran down in the usual manner, lay beside him until he fell asleep and then transferred him to his bed.

Then Gus and I both went upstairs to sleep (we’ve been doing this the last three nights – otherwise we wake to every peep, this way we only wake when they cry).  I woke at…not 11 PM..not 2 AM……not 3:30 AM but 5 AM to….SILENCE!  Neither baby was awake yet and neither had cried through the night – I couldn’t believe it when I looked at my watch! 

I lay there is silent bliss until 6 AM when Kieran woke.  Beseto (fat cat) woke Gus at 5 AM by lying across his face.  He wasn’t impressed.

Okay it was only one night but cross my fingers we may, may, may , may finally be there?  They just turned nine months.  And it has been a long, hard sleep deprived nine months (and longer, I don’t think I really slept for the last three months of the pregnancy). 

Will try again tonight…shhhhhh!  Babies sleeping!

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Sleeping with Baby(ies)

Posted on August 29, 2008 by innest
Two well rested twins, 8 months old

Two well rested twins, their parents don't look this good.

Sleeping with babies is not recommended.  Experts say it can be a cause of SIDS.  So when my guys were first born, they never slept with me.  Even when I went to get them in their crib at 3 AM and I took them to my bed to feed them, I always returned them to their cribs.  Even when they were so cuddly and molded against me and all I wanted to do was to drift off with this cuddly baby – I would startle awake to my SIDS paranoia and return them to their bumper free crib in their sleep sacks (all things that were supposed to ward off SIDS, did I mention I was paranoid?).  More on SIDS some other post.

Somewhere around the six month mark I started lying down with Kieran during his nap – he would drift off quickly when I was there.  And then I started taking him to my bed when he woke up in the night.  And then I would take Angus to bed when he woke.  Gus would come in the morning and find all three of us in various positions, with walls of pillows I had built around them to stop them from rolling onto the floor.  I knew it was a bad idea but at 3 AM when you are so tired and sleep deprived, you take the easy solution, something that will get them back to sleep quickly so everyone can sleep.

Thing is, only the babies really sleep.  I now take Kieran to bed almost every night when he wakes.  and he turns, and squirms, and kicks, and pushes his soother into my face and grabs my hair.  But when he’s asleep I can sleep too.  And when he’s screaming in the other room, I can’t.  Latest solution has been me on a mattress on the floor in their room which worked okay last night (first attempt), I can hush them with my voice when they wake.  We were going to take turns on the mattress but they are at a stage when they only want mommy and we only have one of those.

We are away on vacation for a week.  We are considering something more draconian upon our return (Ferber?  I don’t think I cn do it) but I really need these guys sleeping through the night before I go back to work, three short months away!

Will post when we get back.

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The Trip was Wonderful (till the last leg home)

Posted on August 24, 2008 by innest

My seventeen year old niece and sister each took a baby for two nights and I slept out in their trailer so I couldn’t even hear any fussing.  Two nights uninterrupted sleep – bliss! It’s funny how you are almost tireder when you catch up on sleep – it’s like your body gets used to the interruptions.  I have become a bit of an insomniac since getting up through the night with the babies but I did get a couple good sleeps in.

It was great having more hands around to help with babies and the three little girls (ten, seven, and four) played and played and played with the babies, keeping them entertained.  So in a way it would be easier with twins if you had more kids!

Teagan, my ten year old niece, managed to keep them entertained on the long trip home.  But after I dropped her off and did the last hour on my own – screaming, sobbing babies.  And bumper to bumper traffic to boot.  Very difficult as there is nothing you can really do…I tried talking, singing etc.  I finally had to pull off the freeway and give them a baby mum mum to chew on.  That worked for awhile but then I was worried they would choke on their cookies!  We eventually made it home.  Just trying to get them back on some semblence of a schedule.

Sleep is the theme that keeps comin

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The First Post: Not Sleeping Through the Night with Twins

Posted on August 15, 2008 by innest

The boys are eight months old now and I am sorry to all you parents of twins, triplets and other multiples that are searching for information on the number one issue with multiples i.e. sleep solutions – no, they are still not sleeping through the night.  They are better (one often does) but still no consistency.  I’m quite sure the problem right now is the four new teeth that each are dealing with  –  infant tylenol and infant motrin are getting us some hours of sleep.  I’ve read all the sleep books and advice books – “Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child” ; “Baby Whisperer”, Burton White, “Twelve Hours by Twelve Weeks”.  No I haven’t read Ferber – letting my babies sob themselves to sleeep just doesn’t work for me.  Some evoultionary psychologists believe human babies are not designed to sleep twelve hours.  My husband sent me an interesting link from an anthropologist at Texas A&M Universtity http://kathydettwyler.org/detsleepthrough.html

Right now all I can do is take some comfort in knowing that they will be teenagers one day and we won’t be able to get them out of bed in the morning.  Also, we seem to have the daytime naps down – they both sleep for 1.5 – 2 hours morning and afternoon.  But for those long nights of a few hours sleep here and there, all we can do for now is slog on…..

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